PARANTHEWALI
Gali or lane of parantha makers in Old Delhi is one of the famous
gourmet localities of the world. Today, the famous Mela restaurant in
the UK is imitating the famous gullee and in Bombay the Only Parathas
restaurant group is trying to recreate the ambience of the Delhi lane.
But if you want to visit the famous alley, you better go as early you
can. For, from the 20 parantha shops in the late 60s, the number has
declined to three, as on 2002, and soon only the name of the street will
remain. The three famous shops are Pt Kanhaiyalal Durgaprasad (estd
1875), Pt Dayanand Shivcharan (estd 1882). Pt Baburam Devidayal
Paranthewale (estd 1886). Later, came many more paratha shops and by
1911 this area, known as Chota Dariba or Dariba Kalan, got a new name as
Paranthewali Gali.

As many as 125 years ago,
Pandit Kanhaiyalal paid two paise per month for the shop as rent and
parathas in pattal or disposable plates made of leaves and water in kullhas
or mud pots was the fashion of the day. Today the owner of this
oldest parantha shop is Abhishek Dixit. (who is in banking
profession), but visits the shop everyday. The day-to-day running is
managed by his uncle Anand Prakash Pandey known as Panditji.

In the years just after
Independence, the law and order situation was safe enough to make Pt
Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Vijayalkshmi Pandit to come all the way from
their official residences in New Delhi to take their parantha meals in
this gali. The owner of the "Pandit Dayanand Shivcharan"
shop proudly displays the picture of the Nehru family having their food
in his shop. Not long ago, late Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan and our
present Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee were regular visitors. But
now only a few old Delhiites and some tourists who have heard of the
famous Paranthewali Gali come here. For them the welcome is sincere and
you can have your pick of fresh ghee-fried parantha of 14 varieties.

The Paranthewali Gali was once patronised by Atal Behari Vajpayee

I took my seat in one of the three (near empty) parantha shops
and the owner proudly said that in its heyday, there were huge queues
outside for the wonderful paranthas. The cheapest parantha
today costs Rs 12 and the costliest one (paneer-stuffed) Rs 24. I
ordered one of each and it came with very good pickles, potato curry, a
vegetable side dish and the usual sliced onion and lemons. In the half
an hour I was there, he sold about 20 paranthas and claimed that
the daily sale is about 1000 paranthas. But he admitted that the
business was not good.

As I enjoyed the ghee-laden
tasty paranthas, I asked the owner for the reason of this
decline. He was candid enough. With hundreds of cateries mushrooming in
all parts of Delhi, paranthas were no longer exclusive food items, he
said. "What can be done to rescue the Paranthewali Gali?" I
asked him. He ruefully said that the future was bleak. The greatest
danger was the skyrocketing price of real estate in the Dhariba Kalan
area where the Paranthewali Gali was situated. The space occupied by the
last three parantha shops is worth crores and the returns from parantha
selling very meagre. Soon some cybercafes or wine shops might take over
the century old food shops. Another problem is that the parantha shops
have not been able to diversify to rekindle the interest of local
gourmets.

Today from Kerala to
Kashmir, there are hundreds of varieties of local paranthas.
Restaurants like Only Paranthas in Bombay have as many as 88 types of
this favourite "unleavened bread", while the Paranthewali Gali
shops offer only 14 varieties.

Again, once the greatest
attraction was, that only pure ghee is used to make the
Paranthewali Gali products. Till few years ago, Devidayalís parantha
shop offered a reward of Rs 1100 if anyone could prove that the ghee was
not pure. But nowadays, with a calorie-conscious clientele, this main
selling point is proving a millstone. The simplest parantha
weighing 80 grams has 290 calories and the calorific value goes up to
500 and more depending on the ghee.

One innovation to increase
the Paranthewali Galiís popularity would be to introduce
non-vegetarian paranthas like Mughlai parantha which is a baida
kheema layered one. But the three Brahmin-owned shops are not willing to
make the change. They feel that it would be counter-productive, as many
vegetarians shun places where non-vegetarian paranthas are made.

Another problem that is
"looming" over these "true-to-India parantha
shops" is that the multinationals are taking over the parantha
industry. A KSA Technopak study pegs the parantha market in India at Rs
800 crore. The latest to hit the market right are of course Amulís
frozen ones. Amul has announced a Rs five crore investment to dish out
fried-in-desi-ghee, frozen, stuffed methi and aloo paranthas
costing Rs 20 to 25.

Even for smaller
entrepreneurs, it spells good business, like Delhi-based Grannyís
Oven. With their USP being frozen paranthas, these firms do
roaring business with holidaying NRIs and students about to go abroad.
As such, the future of the three, over a century old shops in
Paranthewali Gali is bleak. Once these parantha shops vanish,
cuisine world in India would have lost a famous landmark forever.